How to Set Up Your Math Interactive Notebook

I started using math notebooks in 2010. I wanted one place for my students to keep all of their notes and work so that they could use it as a reference whenever they needed it. It evolved over time into what I am sharing with you today.

I let the students make a cover page to personalize their notebook.

They then use the next four pages for the table of contents where they write the date, topic and what page that topic can be found on. After those four pages, the students start numbering their pages.

The last five pages are used as an index for vocabulary words. The pages are folded into fourths and each column is assigned a letter. The students list the vocabulary word and the page that it can be found on.

I would stock up of tabs and each new unit would get a new tab that students labeled with the topic. I taught them to use only a 1 in. piece of tape to add the INB page to their notebooks (although they often used larger pieces...)

Almost all of the student notes are taken on foldable notebook pages. Here are a few examples of pages I used in my class.

Note: you'll notice that the following page is on graph paper. Many of my students chose to use the gridded notebooks as it was easier to do their problems within the grid.

I hope this motivates some of you to start using a notebook for math. If you already notebook, tell us some ideas that work for you.

19 comments

Nice:). I am playing around with the idea of using the composition books rather than the spiral notebooks for the Math Notebook.. The spirals took a beating. We had to redo them half way through the year - which actually made for a good review. How do the composition books hold up?

They hold up really well! My students take them home every night and even with all that handleing they do really well. I would recommend the composition notebooks that have the hard tag board covers as they seem to hold up better.

I love Math Journaling. I used composition notebooks, they held up, but what I didn't like is the pages are smaller than I want. Plus, when we made pockets, everything feel out. I am going to try binders next year. Keeping my fingers crossed for this.

Could you turn the pockets so that the top of them are facing inward toward the binding? Maybe that would help with keeping everything inside the notebook. I didn't make pockets for anything and anything we added was taped in.

Composition books are great-- easier for lefties who don't have to worry about spiral impressions on their arms, and no one plays with the spiral wire, turning it into a hazard. We put in lots of foldables. I agree about page size, but we just trim each page we are gluing in with glue sticks.